When Intel released their new Haswell-E CPUs, we decided to rework our CPU gaming performance articles. Meanwhile we're testing different resolutions and there are FullHD, 1440p as well as UHD on our list. This way you get a more detailed understanding of the differences. Today we compare the Core i7-5960X to the old generation Ivy Bridge-E Core i7-4960X at stock clocks as well as overclocked to 4.5GHz and we're curious see how big the differences are.

Nvidia’s GTX 970 sits in that graphics card sweet-spot where it’s about 10-20% slower than its GTX 980 brother, but retails for only 60% of the price. It’s that alluring balance between performance and value that makes the GTX 970 a smart candidate for constructing a strong SLI configuration.
OcUK realises that multi-GPU potential by offering up to a pair of KFA2 GTX 970 Infinity Black Edition graphics cards in its Ultima Finesse Blackhole system. Forging the path for the GTX 970s are Intel’s competitive Core i7 5820K CPU and an MSI X99S SLI Plus motherboard.

The Multi-View X2 USB Docking Station from HIS is a real help when we are frequently on the road or even at offices if using compact laptops/ultrabooks with a low number of ports. With laptops and Windows tablets, we are able to have up to four displays on at the same time (the internal display, the second display via the tablet/laptop HDMI output, third and fourth display thanks to the dock), but also plenty of USB ports for data transfer, quick charging or connecting various peripherals. In case we lack a LAN port, the dock also provides it for us, along with an additional headphone and microphone jack.

Crucial has returned with the BX100 series solid state drive, featuring Micron’s most affordable 16nm NAND flash components. The Crucial BX100 SSD offers excellent performance to value-driven mainstream users, and delivers enthusiast speeds at a reasonable price. Benchmark Reviews tests the BX100 solid state drive against the fastest SSDs available.

Since demand for motherboards from Europe and China is still weak, motherboard players such as Micro-Star International (MSI), Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) and Biostar are expected to see shipments decline in 2015. The top-2 vendors Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology may not be able to achieve their 20 million-unit target of the year as their shipments for the first half are both expected to only reach around nine million units, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

Xigmatek released the Maverick S line consisting of three rather compact, Bronze-certified PSUs a while ago. We will evaluate the line's 500 W member today; it features a semi-modular design and interesting looks. This unit's strongest point is its incredibly low price; however, you currently won't find it anywhere in the US.

"The Galaxy A5 is a slim smartphone from Samsung, with a five-inch HD (1280 x 720) touchscreen, Android 4.4 "KitKat" operating system, and powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 CPU. It has 2 GiB of RAM and 16 GiB storage space, a 13 MP main camera, and a 5 MP frontal camera. Let's take a good look at it."

Samsung's 850 EVO SSD debuted in December inside the usual 2.5" case. Now, the drive is spreading to smaller mSATA and M.2 form factors. We've examined the new drives to see how the mini lineup compares to its full-sized forbear.

Samsung tempted value-oriented enthusiasts in December with its 'V-NAND'-based 850 Evo series. Equipped with 3D TLC NAND, which allows Samsung to stack layer upon layer of transistors, the design improved density, endurance, performance and lowered production costs. Today we have two similarly new drives that focus on different form factors. The mSATA version will appeal to compact PC users, while the M.2 will be more sought after by power users.

The 850 EVO we reviewed a couple of month ago uses SATA 6 Gbps interface that is typical for a desktop system. The growing trends of moving toward more compact computing devices such as laptops and small form factor PC means that even the relatively small 2.5” SATA drive with its dimension of 7 cm x 10 cm x 0.7 cm (LWD) is taking up way too much of the precious space in these systems. The mSATA was designed to help reduce the footprint of the storage devices but it never quite caught on. The M.2, also known as Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), is the latest interface that is designed to reduce not only the footprint but also maximize the usage of the card space. Since M.2 utilizes PCIE interface, it can deliver up to 32 GBit/s when using PCIE 3.0 x4 interface (though no drive is yet capable to taking such bandwidth). Compare this to the 6 Gbit/s, and we can see the benefit of M.2.

"Samsung has come along with yet another great product launch, and those wishing they could get an 850 EVO into their mobile platforms no longer need to wait. You are getting the same high performing VNAND driven by the same proven Samsung SATA controller - just in a different physical packaging. TurboWrite, Samsung Magician and RAPID all apply to these products just as they did for the 2.5" variants. Despite some changes to flash package counts, performance of these new units remained consistent if not identical when compared with the 2.5" EVOs. The only fault I see with these new smaller mSATA and M.2 SATA form factor 850 EVOs is that they did not launch sooner."

Samsung is introducing a number of new members to their SSD 850 EVO line-up of Solid State Drives, based on different form factors than the standard 2.5” drives we showed you here. The brand new mSATA and M.2 Samsung SSD 850 EVO drives being announced today, however, leverage all of the same technology. The last few generations of Samsung’s 2.5” Solid State Drive utilized PCBs that barley filled up half of their encloses, and a large portion of those PCBs were dedicated to the standard SATA power and data cable connectors, so it’s no shock to see these new, smaller variants arrive with mSATA and M.2 support.

When we reviewed the Samsung SSD 850 EVO drive last December we knew that different form factors were coming but we didn’t know exactly when. That question has now been answered as we have a few different drives on our hands. With the same components we saw on the 2.5? 850 EVO we now have an mSATA and M.2 version to play with and expect much the same performance as we saw with the larger drive. Read on to see how they perform!

In the process of building our new open-source, Linux benchmarking test farm the server racks I settled for are the StarTech.com 42U rack cabinets. I`ve bought three of these StarTech.com 42U (4POSTRACK42) racks in the past few weeks and have been happy with their quality for low-price and it includes casters, levelers, and cable management hooks."

Beginners Guides: Repairing a Cracked / Broken Notebook LCD ScreenOct 02 | Beginners GuidesRating:A broken or cracked LCD screen makes a laptop utterly useless, good thing
PCSTATS can show you how to replace that busted laptop screen with a minimum of fuss and for less money than a service center charges. PCSTATS will be fixing a cracked LCD screen on a Lenovo T530 ThinkPad notebook, the general procedures outlined here work for any notebook though.